Hunky-Dory?

Life is not always "hunky-dory," as David Bowie and my father would say. Jesus agrees: "I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to 'set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and a man's enemies will be those of his own household" (Matthew 10:34-36).

Sometimes, in our paltry efforts to live out our faith, misunderstandings arise and separate us from those we love. We may think that others need to be set right, and that may be true—"all have sinned"—but more often then not there are things in us that need to be done. 

And the "doing" of it can be extremely painful.

Keep in mind, however, that our Lord always has our highest good in mind: "All things work together for good," Paul insists, a "good” spelled out in the verses that follow: All things are to the end "that we may be conformed to the image of His Son," and enter into eternal glory (Romans 8:28-30). God is remaking us in the image of his Son that we may share his beauty forever. This is the purpose for which all things—even the most wearisome and vexatious things—exist. 

In the meantime, we can be encouraged by the thought that Jesus fully understands our frustration and sorrow when love for a loved one is thwarted. "He came to his own, but his own did not receive him." When Jesus became a man he became a man in full and "took his own medicine" (Dorothy Sayer).

David Roper